


Promises

by idrilhadhafang



Series: TFA Tidbits [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Amilyn Holdo Needs A Hug, Armitage Hux Being An Asshole, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hosnian system destruction, Hux is Not Nice, Planet Destruction, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Revenge, Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Freeform, System Destruction, leia organa needs a hug, vengeance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 18:16:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11491935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: The moment that Starkiller Base reduces the Hosnian system to a wasteland, and a General's promise.





	Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Wasteland
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

 

 Starkiller Base doesn't take long before it reduces the Hosnian system to ashes.

When the laser strikes, planets are already reduced to nothing but ash, nothing but fire -- there is no Hosnian system as far as Leia knows as it screams through the Force. She can feel her son's presence in that moment, and she knows that he wasn't a part of it, but while the monster Hux was building that monstrosity, that behemoth, he did nothing.

All those stories about Alderaan -- and stars, this is just like Alderaan, just like the last time a monstrosity like this was deployed -- and her son did nothing.

He tried at first, she knows that. Eventually he just stopped fighting. And yet the fact that he stopped fighting --

She can feel his worry, his almost frantic search, brushing aside other presences as if he's making his way through a crowd, and then his presence, his horror. She can feel him, she can feel...something in him. A pinpoint of light that even Snoke hasn't managed to completely extinguish, and there is hope.

Hope. Such an important word. Jyn Erso and others had given them hope when they had sent over the plans for the First Death Star. Hope against the Empire and now, a different sort of hope -- that Snoke has not completely won. He's taunted her, blamed her even, claiming that Kylo Ren is his child by right, and there is no "weakness" in him.

Snoke is wrong.

There is a pinprick of light that even Snoke can't extinguish. And it's there, in her son.

He draws away as if he's been burned, of course. And that is enough to hurt. Snoke's voice echoes over the Force. _I warned you, Kylo Ren. I warned you how the Resistance is incapable of love, incapable of compassion. They live for killing, no more, no less. Or did you think there was any love in that shell?_

Snoke is wrong. She does still love her son. And she will do whatever she can if only to bring him home.

***

There is still fallout from the destruction of the Hosnian system long after Starkiller Base is destroyed. There are still refugees from the destruction, those who lost their families to Hux's attack (and Holdo is hell-bent on making sure that Hux dies. "The moment we bring him back, we'll make sure we avenge what happened to those people," she says. "Preferably by making sure he's executed. I'm not going to sleep until he's either executed or blown up with his ship."), those in the Resistance going to Doctor Gray for therapy. Leia's left room open for refugees to come to the Resistance, as has Holdo.

It's one night that she notices the Admiral standing looking out the window, and she approaches her, cautiously. "Admiral," she says, "Are you all right?"

"I am...tired, General." Holdo turns around, and she looks as if she's aged ten years. Leia cannot blame her.   
"It's been a long day."

"You know that Doctor Gray's open if you need help."

"I don't. I need Hux dead."

Leia's heart breaks for her. "Amilyn..."

"I don't care how he dies. I don't even care if someone in the First Order makes it look like an accident. That...animal killed innocents. Innocents! And for what?"

"I know." Besides Han, Leia has other losses to grieve. Korrie, for example.

"General, if you need...any one of the First Order members' heads brought back on a pike, I'll be happy to volunteer my services."

"That's very...kind of you," for lack of a better word, Leia thinks, "But there are those in the First Order who need saving themselves. Finn, for example."

Holdo relaxes a little. "The man who saved Poe Dameron?"

"Yes."

"He's very brave."

"He is." Leia can't imagine the hell that he's been through beforehand.

"He must have been brave fighting Ren."

"Yes." She still can't believe Ben did this. Ben...Ben never would have --

Then again, there was Master Naris. Finn is just the latest victim he's inflicted pain on.

"Admiral," Leia says, "I promise we'll bring Hux to justice. And the victims of the Hosnian system can rest well knowing that justice has been done. We'll also have the funeral service tomorrow, give them the tribute they deserve."

"Thank you." Holdo's face softens even as she speaks. "Thank you."

 

 


End file.
